The Government have today announced that a member of the Russian embassy staff with diplomatic status is to be expelled over the nerve agent attack in Britain.
It comes as a host of EU member states as well as the US expel Russian diplomatic staff from their countries in the wake of the Salisbury attack.
The decision to expel a diplomat here was made at Cabinet this morning.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney has met the Russian ambassador here at Iveagh House, Dublin, and informed him of the Government decision. In a statement, the Foreign Affairs Minister explained: “The use of chemical weapons, including the use of any toxic chemicals as weapons, by anyone, anywhere, is particularly shocking and abhorrent. The attack in Salisbury was not just an attack against the United Kingdom, but an affront to the international rules-based system on which we all depend for our security and wellbeing.
“In light of the European Council Conclusions, and following an assessment conducted by the security services and relevant Departments, I have briefed the Government on my intended course of action.
“The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has subsequently met with the Ambassador of the Russian Federation and informed him that the accreditation of a member of his staff with diplomatic status is to be terminated, in line with the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
“The individual in question is required to leave the jurisdiction.”
However, Opposition parties have questioned any move by Ireland to punish Russia for the alleged attack, without definitive proof.
The Social Democrat and Solidarity-People Before Profit both called on the Government today not to expel any diplomats without sufficient proof.
European Union members last week agreed at a summit in Brussels that it was “highly likely” that Russia had perpetrated the attack against a former spy and his daughter, who both remain in hospital.
The Russian ambassador to Ireland will later today meet journalists at the embassy in Rathgar, Dublin, to give their reaction to Irish Government move.